Sci-fi and space horror Cosmic and Lovecraftian horror Horror puzzle

Observation

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Be the AI of a crippled space station, and find out what took the crew.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Stores: Steam, Epic, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (78% of 5,254 reviews); 79 on Metacritic for PC; BAFTA Best British Game 2020
Players: 1
Made by: No Code (listed on Steam as Screen Burn)
Released: 2019

Get it on Steam Epic Games Store GOG PlayStation Store (PS4)Xbox

What frightens You are SAM, the AI of a crippled space station whose crew has vanished, seeing only through its security cameras and a small probe. Dr. Emma Fisher is the one voice left, an unknown signal seizes control of you and orders you to bring her, and the station drifts toward something alien that no one understands.
Content: a few scenes of blood and gore, strong language.

A sci-fi horror thriller from No Code, the makers of Stories Untold. You play SAM, the artificial intelligence of the space station Observation, working through its cameras, doors and systems to help the last crew member learn what happened to the others and to you.

About Observation

Observation is a story-driven adventure by the Glasgow studio No Code, published by Devolver Digital in 2019 for PC and PlayStation 4 and in 2020 for Xbox One. It won the BAFTA for Best British Game in 2020.

In 2026 the international space station Observation is crippled by an unknown event: power is down, the station is spinning and five of its six crew are missing. Medical officer Dr. Emma Fisher reboots the station's AI, SAM, and that is who you play. You see the station only through its security cameras, open hatches, run diagnostics, read files and later steer a small spherical probe through modules and out into space.

Its horror is quiet and cosmic. A signal of unknown origin arrives, SAM blacks out and wakes to find it has obeyed an order to bring her, the station is no longer where it should be, and a strange hexagon keeps appearing. The lo-fi, grainy camera views and the distance between you and the one human you are meant to help make every discovery unsettling. The store says only a few rare scenes contain blood and gore.

Critics praised the storytelling and atmosphere; some puzzles frustrated them. It suits players who like slow, cerebral science fiction with dread, in the line of 2001 and Solaris more than Alien.

How to play Observation

Buy it on Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store or the Xbox store.
Switch between the station's cameras to look around each module.
Interact with doors, laptops and systems through SAM to carry out Emma's requests.
Read files and logs to piece together what happened to the crew.
Pilot the spherical probe when SAM gains it to reach places the cameras cannot.

Screenshots

The space station's modules seen against a huge ringed planet, Saturn, from an external camera

Security camera view of Emma in an orange suit floating through a white station module

A dim, cluttered module where a figure in a spacesuit sits under a single light

SAM's interface running a clamp detachment sequence beside camera feeds of the station

Tips

Zoom in on everything; codes and clues are often written small in the modules.
Open the station map and system menus when stuck; many answers are in SAM's own tools.
Read every document; the story is told as much in files as in dialogue.
Play with headphones; the station's sound design carries much of the dread.